Many factors influence the success of any particular commissioning project. We have discovered that one of the most important of these, regardless of all other influences, is the level of owner support for and enforcement of the commissioning process. It is safe to say that if the owner is not committed to the success of commissioning, the commissioning project will not be a success.
There are a number of facility owners who are desperate for help with their building construction projects, typically due to a long history of one dysfunctional new building after another. These facility owners are also overworked, understaffed, and constantly trying to put out fires in the buildings they have (i.e., those that never worked correctly in the first place). When they learn a little about commissioning, some of them will reach for the "magic elixir" and charge ahead with hiring a commissioning consultant to solve all of their problems.